A last-ditch effort to bring water to more than 200,000 customers in Northeast Ohio worked, and water is flowing once again.

The utility ran into trouble Tuesday when an ice buildup on their water intake valves prevented them from taking water from Lake Erie, prompting warnings to residents in seven counties to conserve water and face even more stringent restrictions today.

Bill Neff/Plain Dealer

Wednesday night, officials from neighboring Avon and other communities were preparing to enact Draconian water conservation methods after their water towers ran dangerously low. Medina city residents are told to boil their drinking water until the city can test it for safety. Schools were closed today. That boil order is expected to be lifted Friday.

Homes in the Willow Creek subdivision in Eaton Township, on Hidden Oaks Lane in Columbia Township, and in the Crocker's Landing subdivision in the Columbia Station section of Columbia Township -- those places that lost water completely -- are still under a boil alert today.

The Environmental Protection Agency mandates that once water is lost and a boil alert is issued that alert cannot be removed until an inspection is conducted to make sure the restored water is safe to drink.

But it's business as usual in most of the other communities in the area served directly or indirectly by the Avon Lake Municipal Utilities. The utility recently changed its name to Avon Lake Regional Water, but the new name will not become official until later this year.

After trying unsuccessfully to get the ice off the intake valves, the company came up with an alternate solution to bring in more pumps.

"It was an incredible process that would not have worked unless we got a tremendous amount of help and cooperation," said Todd Danielson, chief utilities executive. "When it was clear that we were not getting the ice off the valves, we called a local vendor and asked if he had any huge pumps. He said not only do they have such a pump, but they have six and they were only in Painesville."

The company, Xylem Dewatering Solutions, put the pumps and the huge intake hoses on tractor-trailers and sent them to Avon Lake Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile, Kendera Construction, of Avon Lake, went to the plant and prepared the way.

"They cut a new road into the lake so we could set up the new pumps, take water out of the lake and bypass our regular system," Danielson said. "The first two pumps arrived around 7 p.m. And they were huge. By then we had a path cleared to the lake and had gone out onto the lake to find the best spots to cut holes in the ice."

Divers from Lake Erie Diving in Mentor helped pick out the best spot to cut the holes.

"We went out 300 feet onto the ice of Lake Erie and cut the holes," Danielson said. "Between midnight and 1 a.m., we had three pumps going, taking water from the lake, bypassing our regular system. I was so exhausted after being up almost 24 hours, I nearly cried when that first pump went on and started taking in water."

They never needed to install the other three pumps because they were already getting enough water to get the system going again. And, at 5 a.m., the regular intake valve started working again.

"We're in great shape now. We have enough water to satisfy the demands," he said. "We're still filling the system back up, sending water to all our customers so they can refill their water tanks, which they used over the past day."

Danielson said they would very cautiously shut off the bypass pumps over the next day or so and switch back to the regular system.

Then they begin the long process of learning from the experience.

"We will debrief on what happened and assess what to do so that it does not happen again," he said. "There is a lot to consider and we will look at everything. Cleveland Water Company's intake valves are three miles out in the lake. Ours are between 1,500 and 2,000 feet out. Are there warmer currents further out? I don't know, but we will figure it out. Perhaps we will improve our storage capacity to get us through another situation like this."

After a long night, the utility sent out a message around 8 this morning that proclaimed, "Avon Lakers, feel free to resume normal water use."

A spokesman for the Rural Lorain County Water Authority, which buys water from the Avon Lake facility and distributes to 22,000 customers in rural areas of Lorain and Medina County, said they were back to almost full service at 5 a.m.

They serve the three subdivisions in Columbia and Eaton townships that remain under boil alert, which are the only customers without full service.

"Best case scenario, they should be able to use their water without boiling it by noon Friday," said Tim Mahoney, general manager of the water authority.

Columbia Township Trustee Dick Heidecker said residents cooperated after being notified through social media and conserved water.

"We just have those remaining houses under a boil alert. Otherwise, we held up pretty well," he said.

Newly elected Avon Mayor Bryan Jensen kept abreast of the progress at the water plant overnight.

"I was here at midnight when I heard the good news, that the substitute pumps looked like they were going to work," Jensen said. "At 4:30 a.m., we had an increase of water in our water tower. We're now in pretty good shape and never had to issue a boil alert."

Medina Mayor Dennis Hanwell issued a boil alert around 9 p.m. Wednesday for his city and it remains in effect today. A water conservation order for residents and businesses in Medina County townships was lifted at 4 p.m. today but the order remains for the city of Medina.

"We are seeing water begin to flow into the Spieth Road tank, which must be at three pounds of pressure to then pump water into our four other elevated water tanks," Mayor Dennis Hanwell said this morning. "We are currently at one pound of pressure. Once we are able to pump from Spieth, we are estimating that we will need three to four hours or so to get all elevated tanks to half full."

Once the tanks are half full, Hanwell said the conservation order in the city will be lifted, but the boil alert will remain in effect until some time Friday, "depending on when we can seal our system and take required water samples for EPA tests."

Medina schools are closed today because of the water woes, but school will resume Friday.

"We will have bottled water in the buildings and cover the drinking fountains so no one uses them," interim Superintendent Dave Knight said.

In nearby North Ridgeville, where thousands of residents were left without heat Monday through Wednesday because of a natural gas problem, part of the city was hit by a water outage.

"No heat, no water, but we survived," said Mayor G. David Gillock. "At least now the emergencies are over."

The city hooked up to a fire hydrant in neighboring Westlake to provide hydrant water for the southeastern part of North Ridgeville when the water level dipped too low.

"I believe only one restaurant was forced to close because of the water problems," Gillock said. "We had ordered tank tanks of water to come in, but we were able to cancel that order."

Most of the city gets its water from Elyria, which did not have a problem.

Elyria also provided water to the 2,000 residents of neighboring Sheffield Village during the outage.

Mayor John D. Hunter said the village "has back-up plans for our back-up plans" and was prepared for such an emergency with an arrangement with Elyria.

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